DSL Service Providers: April 2006

The intensity of competition between cable operators and phone companies went up a notch as Comcast reported a big boost in the number of new subscribers who switched to its cable-broadband service from DSL.

Comcast, the largest U.S. cable television operator, said Thursday when it reported first-quarter 2006 earnings that it increased high-speed broadband subscribers by 437,000. Of these subscribers, about 34 percent came from competitors selling DSL (digital subscriber line) service, compared with about 23 percent of customers a year ago, Steve Burke, chief operating officer of Comcast, said during a conference call with analysts and investors.

"We now get as many customers coming from DSL as we get from AOL narrowband," he said.

Burke suggested that customers are switching to Comcast because they are more interested in high-speed service than in price.

Over the last year, phone companies have slashed prices in an effort to win customers. AT&T dropped the price on its introductory DSL offer to $12.99, and Verizon Communications is offering its 768Kbps service for $17.99. The strategy has worked as phone companies are closing the gap between the total number of DSL subscribers and cable modem subscribers in the country.

Meanwhile, Comcast and other cable companies have held the line on pricing, and instead have increased speeds of their service.

"As the RBOCs (regional Bell operating companies) cut prices we keep focused on speed superiority and reliability," Burke said. "As consumers engage in richer Internet experiences

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Company provides T1 Prices in cook county, Illinois

AT&T launches faster DSL service

AT&T, the former SBC Communications, is launching consumer DSL service at twice its current fastest offering in an effort to boost its competitive position against cable companies.

Starting today, AT&T is selling a Digital Subscriber Line with download speeds of up to 6 megabytes per second for $29.99 per month for the first year. On Monday, it also will be available online for $27.99. After 12 months, the price rises to $39.99 for both ordering options.

As with all DSL, availability is dependent on the distance from the customer's home to AT&T's network. The 6 mbps service is available at distances up to 6,500 feet from a central office, about half the range of the 1.5 mbps service.

AT&T's 3 mbps service for home users is $17.99 per month for the first year, $29.99 per month after that.

Charter's fastest cable Internet offering is 3 mbps for $42.99 bundled with other services, $54.99 alone. Charter also offers service at 384 kilobytes per second for $35.99 per month bundled, $45.99 by itself.

AT&T previously has offered 6 mbps DSL to businesses. That service now will cost $54.99 per month.

Like other phone companies, AT&T is in fierce competition with cable companies for broadband customers, and has boosted its growth rate by cutting prices. The company is the country's largest provider of DSL lines, with 7.4 million lines in service at the end of March.

Cable operators have responded by utilizing the technical advantages of their lines and raising their maximum download speeds, often to 8 mbps or more.

BellSouth Corp., the phone company that has agreed to be acquired by AT&T, introduced 6 mbps service in November for $46.95 per month.

AT&T also has started a multibillion dollar project to draw optical fiber into neighborhoods, which makes DSL speeds

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Understanding DSL Internet Service

DSL or Digital Subscriber Line is a type of broadband Internet connection. This type of broadband Internet requires you to have a phone line. Unlike dial up, you can actually use the phone while you are connected to the internet.

What are the benefits of a DSL Internet connection? DSL allows you to have faster internet connection than a dial up. It can offer faster access to information, faster downloads and much more.

Here are some of the benefits you can get from a broadband DSL Internet service.

Unlike dial ups, DSL allows a subscriber to make and receive phone calls while having an active internet connection. Dial up internet does not allow this, if someone calls you, your phone line will be busy. A DSL line also keeps your computer online as long as your computer is turned on.

With DSL you can talk to your friends, family or business associates with a web cam in real time. You can easily connect a microphone, web cam on your computer, and start using these accessories right away. This may be possible in some dial up, but since it has low speed, the data sent and received will usually be delayed or choppy.

Since you can actually use your voice in the internet in real time, you no longer need to call families and friends using expensive long distance calls from your traditional phone.

DSL also enables you to use VoIP technology. This technology virtually replaces your traditional phone with the internet. VoIP has free features your traditional phone company consider as additional features and chargeable.

Video Conferencing
Caller ID
Call Forwarding
Call Transfer
Call Waiting
Ringtones
Voice Mails
Free Long Distance Calls

These are just examples that VoIP offers and a lot more features are available.

Since you can conduct video conferencing, you no longer have to travel to meet with your business associates, therefore, saving you from travel expenses.

Another benefit from DSL internet is that you can play audio and video streams in the internet smoothly and without interruptions. You can now play your favorite internet radio stations while you surf the web or play your favorite music videos in the internet.

Playing online games that requires high-speed internet is now possible with the DSL internet. You can use your own PC or gaming consoles such as the PS2 or Xbox to play with other people from around the world and create an online community with adventure games.

Students can also improve their studies by using the DSL connection. Since DSL provides high-speed internet connection, students can now research more webpage that are required for their studies.

In dial ups, low speed internet connection restricts a student’s research to just a few webpage. This is because in dial up, loading webpage is too slow that a student will just stick to one or two websites to save time and money to do their research.

Online businesses can update their websites much faster in DSL than in dial up. Updating website for online businesses is crucial to inform their customers about the products they are selling.

Today, there are many DSL service providers in the market; choosing one is up to you. Research about the companies that provides this service before you buy their service and you can be sure about the quality of the DSL connection.

Ask your friends and family first who have this technology in their homes or businesses can also help you choose which DSL provider you want to work with.

Bob Hett has extensively covered the Internet Service Provider industry as an analyst and has researched the various companies for factors based on price, reliability, support and overall quality.

Learn more at DSL Internet Service

EarthLink and Covad Announce Additional Markets for Innovative Bundle of Voice Services and High-Speed Internet

Covad , a leading national provider of integrated voice and data communications, and EarthLink , the nation's next generation Internet service provider, today announced expanded Voice over IP (VoIP) market availability that will give EarthLink the ability to offer customers low-cost phone services bundled with high-speed Internet access in eight additional cities. EarthLink has agreed to provide Covad with $50 million in debt and equity financing to fund additional network build-outs that will bring Covad's line-powered voice access to Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, New York City, Philadelphia, San Diego, and Washington, D.C. Already, EarthLink provides DSL and Home Phone Service in Dallas, TX, San Francisco and San Jose, CA, and Seattle, WA.

Made possible through Covad's line-powered voice access, EarthLink DSL and Home Phone Service provides an alternative to the local phone companies. Customers can sign up for a bundle of local and long distance phone service and high-speed Internet access using their existing phones, wiring and computer equipment. Like traditional phone service, EarthLink's voice services will operate during a power outage, support enhanced 911 calling and offer custom calling features.

"With our Internet voice initiatives, we are reshaping our position in the marketplace and redefining what it means to be an ISP," said Garry Betty, EarthLink's president and chief executive officer. "EarthLink DSL and Home Phone Service strengthens our role as a 'Total Communications Company' by delivering one of the industry's most comprehensive portfolios of voice and data products to meet our subscribers' growing communications needs."

"This agreement demonstrates the success of our strategy to target the residential market through strategic partnerships," said Charles Hoffman, president and CEO of Covad Communications. "By strengthening our relationship, Covad and EarthLink are better able to provide a consumer VoIP service that far exceeds the competition in both voice quality and features."

Covad's line-powered voice access marries the "last mile" of traditional telephone copper wiring with EarthLink's advanced VoIP features by taking advantage of the next-generation Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexer (DSLAM) technology that will enable Covad to offer higher-speed broadband access (ADSL 2+, G.SHDSL) and new business-class services such as metro Ethernet and bonded T1.

EarthLink customers will enjoy high quality service because their calls will be delivered over Covad's and EarthLink's managed national networks rather

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DSL Service

Verizon's DSL ads highlight the need for speed

NEW YORK — It's hard to imagine with all the buzz about high-speed broadband and the new media forms it enables, such as video on the Web, that about 32% of home computers still access the Internet via an old-fashioned, pokey, dial-up modem.
That's shrinking fast, though. The number of active broadband users at home was 95.5 million as of February, up 28% from a year earlier, according to Nielsen/NetRatings. And everyone from phone companies to cable operators is battling hard to capture the holdouts.

But crafting a sales pitch is not proving easy.

"It's a really splintered market," says Jon Gibs, senior director of media, Nielsen/Net Ratings. "People tend to shop on different factors: price or convenience."

Convenience-minded customers are likely to sign up with their current cable TV carrier or phone company for high-speed Internet service. That puts Verizon Broadband in a good spot. Nearly 65% of Verizon phone customers have plans that could bundle DSL broadband with their voice line.

That packaged appeal — plus aggressive pricing vs. the cable offerings — helped Verizon boost its broadband subscriptions by 47% in 2005 over 2004. It closed out 2005 with 1.7 million net DSL additions to bring its total to 5.1 million, making Verizon the top DSL provider in the category.

But Verizon has been using a humorous ad campaign to try to win over even more of the broadband holdouts.

One recent ad shows a singing diva on a computer screen. Her performance is interrupted and mangled by slow dial-up. She storms off the stage and tells the viewer "You can't handle me with your slow bandwidth."

In another ad an animated cat sweetly sings, "Here's wishing you a Happy-Cat birthday." But when his image fades out he breaks into a gruff voice and lectures the user on slow dial-up.

"We created the ads specifically to address the large majority of marketplace laggards out there hesitating about making the leap," says Patricia Foster, director of consumer strategy and performance assurance.

The trick was making what's essentially a demonstration entertaining. Ad agency Draft, N.Y. came up with the characters to present the product in a light-hearted manner.

"We wanted to highlight the benefit of moving to a broadband connection and we wanted to do it in a humorous, product-demonstration way," Foster says.

The ads did not, however, get a lot of laughs from consumers surveyed by Ad Track, USA TODAY's weekly consumer poll.

Of those familiar with the ads, just 9% like them "a lot," compared with the Ad Track average of 21%. The ads were a bigger hit with consumers 30 to 39, of whom 20% like the ads "a lot."

That's OK with Foster, as that age group heavily reflects a key target: families with children

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New DSL service offered in Dayton area

Cincinnati Bell Inc. is expanding its high-speed DSL Internet service to the greater Dayton market, the telecommunications company said Wednesday.

The service, ZoomTown, became available Tuesday to Cincinnati Bell customers in the area. It will allow business and residential consumers to bundle high-speed Internet along with home phone and wireless phone services.

The company will charge $10 for an introductory six month period when purchased along with local and long-distance phone service. After that the regular monthly charge for the DSL service will be $29.99 if purchased with phone and wireless services or $34.99 if bought with

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